In Search of a Comedy Education Kit

Similar documents
Power Standards and Benchmarks Orchestra 4-12

Stylistic features Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in D minor, Op. 3 No. 11

Assessment Schedule 2017 Music: Demonstrate knowledge of conventions in a range of music scores (91276)

43. Leonard Bernstein On the Waterfront: Symphonic Suite (opening) (For Unit 6: Further Musical Understanding)

Music Curriculum Glossary

Cambridge International Examinations Cambridge International General Certifi cate of Secondary Education

Haydn: Symphony No. 101 second movement, The Clock Listening Exam Section B: Study Pieces

3. Berlioz Harold in Italy: movement III (for Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)

Skill Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Controlling sounds. Sing or play from memory with confidence. through Follow

44. Jerry Goldsmith Planet of the Apes: The Hunt (opening) (for Unit 6: Further Musical Understanding)

Sibelius Projects for Students

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

2014 Music Performance GA 3: Aural and written examination

Music Study Guide. Moore Public Schools. Definitions of Musical Terms

2014 Music Style and Composition GA 3: Aural and written examination

GCSE MUSIC REVISION GUIDE

King Edward VI College, Stourbridge Starting Points in Composition and Analysis

Elements of Music. How can we tell music from other sounds?

Vivaldi: Concerto in D minor, Op. 3 No. 11 (for component 3: Appraising)

TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 PREREQUISITES FOR WRITING AN ARRANGEMENT... 1

Unit Outcome Assessment Standards 1.1 & 1.3

Bite-Sized Music Lessons

Music, Grade 9, Open (AMU1O)

MARK SCHEME for the May/June 2011 question paper for the guidance of teachers 0410 MUSIC

2. ARTICULATION The pupil must be able to able to articulate evenly and clearly at a variety of slow to medium tempos and demonstrate a good posture

Bite-Sized Music Lessons

Danville Public Schools Music Curriculum Preschool & Kindergarten

0410 MUSIC. Mark schemes should be read in conjunction with the question paper and the Principal Examiner Report for Teachers.

S Schwartz: Defying Gravity (from the album of the cast recording of Wicked) (for component 3: Appraising)

17. Beethoven. Septet in E flat, Op. 20: movement I

Music at Menston Primary School

Bite-Sized Music Lessons

Loudoun County Public Schools Elementary (1-5) General Music Curriculum Guide Alignment with Virginia Standards of Learning

2011 Music Performance GA 3: Aural and written examination

The Classical Period

47. James Horner Take her to sea Mr Murdoch from Titanic

CMP Teaching Plan: Four Royal Dances

HYDE MUSIC DEPARTMENT. KS3 Theory Booklet

Assessment Schedule 2017 Music: Demonstrate aural understanding through written representation (91275)

DEPARTMENT/GRADE LEVEL: Band (7 th and 8 th Grade) COURSE/SUBJECT TITLE: Instrumental Music #0440 TIME FRAME (WEEKS): 36 weeks

Copyright 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s). All rights reserved. NES, the NES logo, Pearson, the Pearson logo, and National

Progress across the Primary curriculum at Lydiate Primary School. Nursery (F1) Reception (F2) Year 1 Year 2

Year 7 revision booklet 2017

NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE GRADE 12

Course Outcome Summary

Instrumental Performance Band 7. Fine Arts Curriculum Framework

Babar the Little Elephant

Assessment Schedule 2016 Music: Demonstrate knowledge of conventions in a range of music scores (91276)

LEVELS IN NATIONAL CURRICULUM MUSIC

LEVELS IN NATIONAL CURRICULUM MUSIC

PERFORMING ARTS. Head of Music: Cinzia Cursaro. Year 7 MUSIC Core Component 1 Term

Articulation Clarity and distinct rendition in musical performance.

JAMAICAN RHUMBA. EXPLORE Dance Inspirations. 15 and 16 March 2017 QSO Studio

WASD PA Core Music Curriculum

NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE GRADE 12

Poway Unified School District Instrumental Music Scope and Sequence Grades 5 through 12

MUSIC. Listening and Appraising component. GCSE (9 1) Candidate style answers. For first teaching in 2016.

HOW TO STUDY: YEAR 11 MUSIC 1

A series of music lessons for implementation in the classroom F-10.

Bite-Sized Music Lessons

Advanced Orchestra Performance Groups

WSMTA Music Literacy Program Curriculum Guide modified for STRINGS

2011 MUSICIANSHIP ATTACH SACE REGISTRATION NUMBER LABEL TO THIS BOX. Part 1: Theory, Aural Recognition, and Musical Techniques

BIG IDEAS. Music is a process that relies on the interplay of the senses. Learning Standards

Sibelius In The Classroom: Projects Session 1

PRESCHOOL (THREE AND FOUR YEAR-OLDS) (Page 1 of 2)

GCSE Music CPD Resource Booklet

Stephen Schwartz Defying Gravity (from Wicked) Name: PLC. score

Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor - 3 rd Movement (For Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)

Courtney Pine: Back in the Day Lady Day and (John Coltrane), Inner State (of Mind) and Love and Affection (for component 3: Appraising)

Sibelius: Tips for Working Effectively

Greenwich Public Schools Orchestra Curriculum PK-12

Sibelius Advanced Session 2

FINE ARTS Institutional (ILO), Program (PLO), and Course (SLO) Alignment

SAMPLE. Music Studies 2019 sample paper. Question booklet. Examination information

Assessment Schedule 2013 Making Music: Integrate aural skills into written representation (91420)

Introduction to Instrumental and Vocal Music

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

Assignment Ideas Your Favourite Music Closed Assignments Open Assignments Other Composers Composing Your Own Music

Year 11 Music Revision Guidance

STRAND I Sing alone and with others

Greeley-Evans School District 6 Year One Beginning Orchestra Curriculum Guide Unit: Instrument Care/Assembly

Music Curriculum Summary

MUSIC PROGRESSIONS. Curriculum Guide

Grade 4 General Music

OCR GCSE (9-1) MUSIC TOPIC EXPLORATION PACK - THE CONCERTO THROUGH TIME

2018 Music. Advanced Higher. Finalised Marking Instructions

Version 1.0. General Certificate of Secondary Education June GCSE Music Listening to and Appraising Music Unit 1. Final.

Foundation - MINIMUM EXPECTED STANDARDS By the end of the Foundation Year most pupils should be able to:

THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

SUBJECT VISION AND DRIVERS

Tyler Lundy Literature Project 2015 Name of group: High School Symphonic Band

Stafford Township School District Manahawkin, NJ

Final. Mark Scheme. Music. (Specification 4270) Unit 1:Listening to and Appraising Music. General Certificate of Secondary Education June 2011

GCSE MUSIC UNIT 3 APPRAISING. Mock Assessment Materials NOVEMBER hour approximately

La Salle University MUS 150 Art of Listening Final Exam Name

Curriculum Framework for Performing Arts

Music Tech Lesson Plan

Assessment Schedule 2017 Music: Demonstrate knowledge of conventions used in music scores (91094)

Musicianship Question booklet 1. Examination information

Transcription:

In Search of a Comedy Education Kit

In Search of a Comedy Education kit Contents 1. Introduction 2. About Paul Grabowsky 3. Paul on Sibelius 5 4. Using the Ideas Hub in the composition tasks 5. Music concepts and composition tasks: pitch 6. Music concepts and composition tasks: Meter, Tempo and Rhythm 7. Music concepts and composition tasks: Dynamics and expressive techniques 8. Music concepts and composition tasks: Tone Colour 9. Music concepts and composition tasks: Texture 10. Music concepts and composition tasks: Structure 1. Introduction In Search of a Comedy was commissioned by Sibelius Software Australia for the launch of Sibelius 5. Sibelius asked well-known jazz and film composer Paul Grabowsky to write an entertaining piece that could be used in two ways: firstly, as a showy opener to the Sibelius launches in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston and Canberra featuring live solo violinist accompanied by the new highly realistic Sibelius Sounds Essentials (which were a major new feature of Sibelius 5). The second requirement of the piece was to make it adaptable for an education kit specially designed for all English speaking countries. And that s the kit that you re holding now. The idea of this kit was to produce a series of lesson plans each concentrating on a musical concept or related concepts which each led to composition tasks for students which could be completed in Sibelius. The kit is free. As well as this booklet, the kit includes a CD-Rom (or alternatively you may have downloaded these resources from the Sibelius website). On the CD-Rom you ll find worksheets to get your students started on the composition tasks, and the Sibelius file of the original composition. When you open In Search of a Comedy, Sibelius may tell you that it can t locate a video file called Grabowsky Solo Violin. This is included in the same folder as the Sibelius file, so you should be able to easily locate it. In actual fact this file is the solo violin part, recorded live so that you have the same experience of Sibelius playback with a real soloist. To get the best playback results, make sure your computer has 1Gb or more of RAM and that you ve installed Sibelius Sounds Essentials. Sibelius 5

[Introduction cont.] Because everybody s computer system is different, you may find you need to make a few adjustments to balance the solo violin and the orchestra. If the solo violin needs to be louder, open the video window if it isn t already (Window > Video) and slide the volume slider all the way to the right. If the violin still isn t loud enough, you can turn Sibelius playback down in the mixer (shortcut M) change the Master Volume at the very bottom of the mixer (if it doesn t appear, there s a button to show or hide it at the top of the mixer). Finally, if the violin plays slightly ahead or behind the score, you can edit the starting position by going to Play > Video and Time > Timecode and Duration. Under Start Video At: Sibelius will be set to -0:00:00:17. If the violin sounds behind the orchestra, try a lower number than 17. If it s ahead, try a higher number. And if you have any problems getting it to play back just perfectly, there s an MP3 of the whole piece on the CD-Rom or on the website if you have downloaded this resource. 2. About Paul Grabowsky It s hard to describe what Paul Grabowsky does in one introductory sentence. Paul is the artistic director of the Australian Art Orchestra, a film composer, performs regularly with his trio, with other renowned soloists and large ensembles around Australia and all over the world, is regularly asked to speak as a music expert and educator, and often has a bunch of side projects on the go at any one time. Paul is a classically trained pianist but his focus and his love is jazz. It s impossible to pigeon hole Paul, though, because his output is so wide and varied, from the avant garde through the Hollywood film set to a humourous entertaining spectacular like In Search of a Comedy. Paul has a CV most musicians would kill for. Countless ARIA and AFI awards and nominations for films like The Good Looker or Jessica, ARIA awards for his albums, Rolling Stone Jazz Artist of the Year twice, the Sidney Myer, Bell and Helpmann awards and the Melbourne Prize for music to name but a few. Paul has written for or performed as part of Michael Kieran Harvey, the James Morrison quartet, the Sydney Olympics and Paralympics, Don Burrows, Katie Noonan, Branford Marsalis and many many more. He has performed all over the world. The Timecode and Duration dialog in Sibelius On his website, Paul describes his attraction to jazz as such: My love affair with jazz started at the time when most first serious love affairs start, namely at 16. My school, Wesley College, was one of the few at the time to boast a jazz ensemble and not being a sportsman it was possibly the only school activity that I could pursue which might attract the attention of the opposite sex. I couldn't play jazz to save my life but largely thanks to the encouragement of John Lee, the teacher in charge of the group, I persevered. Every night, Monday to Friday, I would listen to the ABC's radio show "Music to Midnight", which introduced me to a host of Paul Grabowsky

[About Paul Grabowsky] mainstream artists, such as Oscar Peterson and Errol Garner. It didn't take long before I realized that jazz was the music that I was destined to play. I think it was the marriage of rhythm and line that swept me away. Exposure to be-bop turned my head around, and I began to transcribe various solos by Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro and Bud Powell. Bud is still my favourite jazz pianist. Paul is also an avid user of Sibelius, which is another reason his name was the first considered when the idea of this commission came up. When Paul became involved in the release of Sibelius 5 and saw the product early, he said Bibliography and further reading: http://www.paulgrabowsky.com/ http://www.aao.com.au/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/paul_grabowsky 3. Paul on Sibelius 5 Whether composing scores for a large film orchestra, or writing contemporary jazz for the Australian Art Orchestra, Sibelius has all the tools I need. Its easy to learn, and remains the most powerful notation package available today. Paul Grabowsky August 2007 4. Using the Ideas Hub in the provided composition tasks Included in the CD-Rom or from the website where you downloaded these files is a folder of Sibelius 5 scores which are composition task worksheets to get students started on the tasks based on studied musical concepts. The Ideas Hub To get students started in each task, basic musical elements (chords, ostinati, accompanying parts, and so on) are included in the Ideas Hub. By default, the usual library of over 2000 ideas is turned off in each of these scores, so students will focus on the relevant material only. Instructions for each task are also included on the first page of each score, so that students can move seamlessly from the listening lessons on In Search of a Comedy to the composition task with little Sibelius experience. If you haven t used the Ideas Hub before, it might be worth learning how it works. The following pages are from the Sibelius 110 course which can be taken with any Sibelius Training Partner (see ).

[The Ideas Hub] Capturing and Sorting Your Own Ideas Whilst you re working on a score, open the Ideas Window, by going to Window > Ideas, or clicking on the Ideas button on the Toolbar (it looks like a light bulb). Click on the Score button at the top. You should have an empty window ready for you to fill with your own ideas. An idea can be a passage of music of any length, any kind and for any number of instruments. To capture an idea, select the relevant bars, notes or musical elements in your score and then press Shift + I or xi. You can also click on the Capture Idea button at the bottom of the Ideas window. The idea will now appear in your collection of Score ideas. You ll have noticed that Sibelius automatically tagged your idea with a few pieces of information including a title, the time signature and the speed at which the idea was created. To make your idea easy to locate down the track, you can add your own tags and even colour-code your ideas. Select an idea in the Ideas Window and click on the Edit Idea Info button at the bottom of the window. You can give your idea a more descriptive title in the Name box and then add some tag words (separated by spaces) in the Tags field (such as fast, funky, 12 bar blues). If you d like to give your idea a special colour, click on the Color button and choose away! Editing Ideas If you would like to edit the musical content of an idea, you can select it and then click on the Edit button at the bottom of the window, or just double-click it. You can then change the notes, tempo, harmony or instruments just as you would edit any score. Save the changes and close the idea to return to your score. Sibelius 5 comes with over 2000 copyright-free ideas, ready to use as a springboard for compositions or arrangements. The ideas represent a huge range of styles - from classical, jazz and band to world music rock and hip-hop. The Ideas Hub with some of the Mr Bean ideas in it To access the collection, click on the Library button at the top of the Ideas window. A list of ideas will appear, each with a different colour to match a specific style of music. You can search the library by typing tag words into the search field at the top of the window. Try Motown, funk, classical, jazz blues or even words like happy or slow. The Edit Idea Info dialog box

Listening to Ideas You can check how an idea sounds at any time by clicking and holding the mouse button on it. The idea will play back in a loop until you release the mouse button. Detailed View The Ideas Window has two views: compact (which we ve been using up to this point) and detailed. To switch to the Detailed View, click on the button on the bottom right-hand corner of the Ideas window. Detailed view allows you to see a complete notation preview of an idea as well as all the tags belonging to each idea. Detailed view also gives you access to the Export or Import buttons which allow you to share your ideas with other people, or transfer them to other scores. For more information, see Sharing Ideas and Importing Ideas in Help > Reference > 5.8 Ideas. Some of the built-in Ideas in the Ideas Hub The detailed view

5. Music Concepts and Composition Tasks: Pitch Parallel chords The opening section (bars 1 to 16) repeats the same two bar chord progression 8 times. This chord progressions is repeated at bar 37 and 95 although transposed down a perfect fifth to begin with a C major chord. Listen to each occurrence of this pattern, or listen through the whole work and ask your students to identify where it returns. Unconventional harmony The two-bar chord pattern is unconventional in that all chords are major chords and move in entirely parallel movement, and that while they have a clear tonal centre of G each chord is not part of one key or mode. It is the parallel movement and the tonal centre which lend an immediate musical familiarity to the listener. Review the difference between major and minor chords. If you can do the following keyboard exercise, make sure that they understand that even though all chords are major the similarity is in the intervals between notes of the chord, not combination of white and black notes, which can confuse some students. Internalising the theory through keyboard skills If you have access to multiple keyboards or pianos, ask each student to learn the chord progression. For those who do not have much keyboard experience, teach them how to play the progression one-handed in second inversion (which maintains the same top pitch). The parallel movement of the hand will help them internalise what is going on in the harmony. Further listening Point out that while the progression does not follow conventional harmonic rules students that the students may have learned, it does most certainly have a tonal centre which is G (and C on its latter repeats). Listen again to the whole opening and observe the drones on G and D in the marimba and harp parts, followed by the addition of the bass part which also revolves around G and D. Chord progression bars 1 to 16 The chord progression one-handed Composition task The composition task is for students to write a chord progression of their own with parallel harmony. They do not necessarily need to use major chords minor chords or any other chord with three or more notes in it is fine, and chords may be in any voicing and for any instrumentation. In the Ideas Hub of the score GrabPitch.sib chords with varying rhythms are provided to give students a start. They can invent their own chords, or they can use one from the Ideas Hub and transpose it to create a chord progression. An extension to the task is to add unpitched percussion parts and one or more melodic parts.

6. Music Concepts and Composition Tasks: Meter, Tempo and Rhythm Paul Grabowsky does incredibly clever things with Meter, Tempo and Rhythm in In Search of a Comedy. Although the time signature for the majority of the piece shows as, the meters of compound, additive s, and composite + are implicit in the rhythmic writing. In addition to that, the rhythms are syncopated over any written or implicit meter, making the whole piece sound rhythmically distorted and exciting. So what does all that mean? Let s look at some different sections of the work and what happens with meter, tempo and rhythm within them. The opening, bars 1 to 16 The opening is written in but has much more of a feel with four beats to the bar, and the strong beat on beat 1. Play the introduction and clap the 4 beats. Show the students how quavers are grouped in as opposed to, explaining the concept of compound and simple meters if necessary; and then show them the written rhythm of the ostinato that begins in the piano then moves to the strings, the woodwind and finally the trumpets and clarinet. Observe that it s actually much more difficult to clap 6 than 4 in this section and that this tells us it s in not : try it. The rhythm of the repeated chord pattern is one bar long and can be seen to the right. Each bar has an accent created by the changing notes on what would be the final two beats of a bar. In this context, it s possible to hear this rhythm as a combined + bar. When we look at later sections of this piece we will find that this composite meter is often suggested by the rhythmic grouping of the notes. It s possible to hear the opening either way, though; Different subdivisions of 6/4 and 12/8 The rhythm of the repeated pattern Rhythm grouped as composite 6/8 and 3/4 and being written in the whole section has an obscured meter, which is Grabowsky s intention and creates excitement and edginess. Wider listening Flamenco is a Spanish music and dance form which also often uses alternating + time signatures. Listen to some Spanish Flamenco, or you may find that students find more approachable America from Leonard Bernstein s West Side Story which is rhythmically modelled on this style.

[Meter, Tempo and Rhythm] Back to the opening Now look at the bass part in this section, entering at bar 9. Whether the meter is compound or simple, the bass part obscures it further by syncopating over the beat of either! It does, however, back up the feeling of a crotchet beat at the end of the bar by doubling the crotchet rhythm. The bass line Second section (and main theme), bars 17 to 33 Following the bass and lower string parts is the key to following the subdivisions here. Again, while the key signature is we don t hear six even crotchets in a bar. Again, the bass line rhythm fits most closely an alternating +. The upper strings play pizzicato off-beat chords, which further syncopate over the already obscure metric divisions. Try clapping the 1-2-1-2-3 along with the bass line you can highlight just the bass line to hear it alone. From bar 29 to 32 there is a transition into the third section which again although written in has a different feel. In this case, the bar is divided into 3, with the punctuation of the chords in addition to the phrasing in the solo violin and flute confirming three strong beats in the bar: therefore. Tempo From the beginning to this point there hasn t been a written tempo change, but because the length of the beat has changed (so far one beat has been 2, 3 and 4 quavers long) the tempo effectively changes with each change in feel. The implied is therefore slower, but is there so briefly the ear struggles to comprehend exactly what has happened (again, this is Grabowsky s intent). Third section bars 33 to 37, and fourth section bars 37 to In this section we hear for the first time simple quaver rhythm from both soloist and accompaniment that might actually suggest a regular. Before it can establish itself, however, we move into the next section where the opening chord progression, transposed down a fifth, appears in the piano at the same time the accompaniment to the main theme (which enters Another way of reading the 2 bar pattern four bars later on the clarinet) gives it a much more + than feel. And just when you might think that was

[Meter, Tempo and Rhythm] creating enough rhythmic interest, Grabowsky gives the solo violin accompanying quavers which change pitch every second note, giving a straight feel again. At no moment is anything allowed to settle. At bar 49 this turns into arpeggiated 4s, but not regularly through the bar, and with rests so that where they begin soon becomes syncopated with the accompaniment too. The rest of the piece Students may want to explore the rest of the piece, which is just as rich with changing inferred meters and syncopated rhythms. The main points of interest would be the bars at 53 to 56 and again at 111 to 118; the slow feel at bar 57, the increasing level of syncopation as the solo part develops; the additive rhythms from bar 79 (for instance, 3+2+2+2+3); and the recapitulation of much contrasting rhythmic material from bar 95. Composition task Write a short piece which uses a mix of compound and simple time. This may be done freely, or to get you started two Sibelius templates have been provided. The first one, GrabMeter1.sib is a blank percussion file with alternating + time signatures. In the Ideas Hub, you ll find percussion parts that fit to this pattern. Choose two or more, and add at least two parts of your own, on pitched or unpitched instruments. The second file provided, GrabMeter2.sib, is again a blank score but this time with ideas in the Ideas Hub which divide a time signature in different ways, like the Grabowsky. The ideas include bass lines and unpitched percussion instruments. Choose one of each kind of idea, and repeat it as an ostinato. Then add at least two ideas of your own, one pitched and one unpitched, which deliberately obscure the implied meter of the idea you originally selected. Instructions for each task are also provided for your students in the Sibelius files.

7. Music Concepts and Composition Tasks: Dynamics and Expressive Techniques The solo violin part can be opened and printed from within the Sibelius score by clicking on the parts drop-down menu and choosing the solo violin part. It can also be found in the worksheets folder as a PDF ready for printing or sharing electronically. In the recordings folder you will also find an MP3 of the entire violin part, and a series of excepts which match the examples below. The virtuosic violin part is an excellent opportunity to study expressive techniques available to a string player, as well as bowing technique and creation of contrast through dynamic change. You may like to augment this with some wider listening to examples of other string instruments performing the same bowing techniques and examples of extended techniques, which are not used in In Search of a Comedy. Able string students or peripatetic teachers may be able to demonstrate; another solution is a program made by Sibelius called Instruments which includes hundreds of such examples as score excerpts and live recordings. Here are examples of different bowing techniques and sounds: Separate bows (Détaché) Where there is no bowing instruction or implicit articulation, each note is played with a separate bowing alternatively up then down. The symbol for an up bow is and a down bow is. When each note is bowed separately it has more attack, and the passage will not be as smooth, even if there are no rests between notes. One example of this is at bars 92 and 93: while much of what is separately bowed throughout the work is marked staccato, even the notes that are not here have a very clear attack: Content in Sibelius Instruments (Recording Grabowsky solo ex1 bars 92-93.mp3) Separate bows

[Dynamics and Expressive Techniques] Slurred bows In string music, a slur indicates that the notes affected should be played in the same bow. This creates a legato phrase. In the main theme Grabowsky likes to contrast slurred groups of notes with staccato notes. In the second half of the phrase (bars 21 to 24), many notes are slurred, and as a result the melody is much smoother: Bars 21 to 24, solo violin part (Recording Grabowsky solo ex2 bars 21-24.mp3) Fast, Loud, Staccato (Martelé) An effect used in many passages in In Search of a Comedy, writing in this style requires the performer to grip the string with the bow, momentarily stopping the sound before proceeding. Because the string is fully damped at each preparation this achieves a strong separation between notes. A good example of this is the passage from bar 58 to 75: (Recording Grabowsky solo ex3 bars 58-75.mp3) Spiccato Grabowsky uses spiccato especially between bars 78 and 86 and later between bars 99 and 105. Spiccato is a technique in which the bow is thrown onto the string so that it bounces off again. Each successive note uses a different bow direction. The technique has a light, crisp effect and works best at quicker tempi. Solo violin bars 58 onward (Recording Grabowsky solo ex4 bars 78-86.mp3) Solo violin bars 78-83

[Dynamics and Expressive Techniques] Dynamic contrast It s not just articulation that directs the expressive techniques the violinist employs. The dynamics and placement of contrasting dynamics will also affect the choice of attack and mode of bowing. In the final section of the piece, as part of the build, Grabowsky brings the solo violin in at bar 99 marked p, and crescendos poco a poco (little by little) as the excitement rises, with spiccato bowing building to arpeggiations at bar 107 marked f, which then build in dynamic further with the use of accents from bar 111 and the very fast slurred notes in the penultimate bar. Everything works together to create a final climax: (Recording Grabowsky solo ex5 bars 100-120.mp3) Composition task Students will write a piece for solo violin (any other instrumentation in addition is allowed) using at least one of the above expressive techniques or one of the following techniques and extended techniques which you may have also studied in class: Sul tasto Sul ponticello Snap pizz. (Bartök pizz.) Glissando Col legno Harmonics Tremolo Multiple stops Varied attach and dynamics in the solo violin part Reference to each performance technique is found in the Ideas Hub to help the students remember what they have learned in class. The piece should be a musical description of a life experience. They may imitate the sound of that experience or write descriptively about their feelings about it. For example, the piece may be about a visit to the dentist or their first day at high school (lots of tremolo!), or about a trip on an aeroplane, or a recent holiday. Open GrabExpress.sib to begin.

8. Music Concepts and Composition Tasks: Tone Colour In Search of a comedy is a work for solo violin and orchestra. It s probably not quite the style of piece you d associate with these forces, however, and Grabowsky has extended the instrumentation to include instruments you might normally expect to find in the orchestra but which do reflect the jazz background that is his main artistic focus. With a copies of the score or at the computer, ask students to find instruments that they think are not typical to an orchestra. You will expect them to name the drum kit and the jazz bass. They may also nominate some instruments which frequently appear in both modern orchestral and jazz music such as the vibraphone, shaker and brass instruments explain that while one would not see these instruments in an orchestra of the baroque or classical period, romantic and modern orchestras have increasingly used instruments like these. Wider listening Discuss the idea of fusion: music of more than one style blended together. Listen to Silverland by Paul Grabowsky (available as an individual track from the itunes store), which itself is a fusion of funk, pop and jazz styles, and ask the students to identify instruments they recognise from In Search of a Comedy. Discuss the effect introducing new tone colours into existing ensembles has. Composition tasks There are two tasks, depending on the level of the student attempting them. The first task involves arranging a jazz groove for a larger orchestration. Students open the file GrabTone1.sib and decide which parts of the original arrangement might work in an orchestra. The second task involves adding jazz elements to a classical orchestral work, or arranging a theme into a jazz style. After opening Grab- Tone2.sib, students can find elements from the Ideas Hub or they can write their own. Cover artwork for Tales of Time and Space The intention of both tasks is to mix the tone colours (and styles to a certain extent) of each genre to create a fusion sound.

9. Music Concepts and Composition Tasks: Texture In Search of a comedy is a work that explores a wide range of textures and textural devices.. How these work is easier to see with empty staves hidden, and even easier with highlights applied to help reveal some of the textures and devices Grabowsky works with. You can find this in the provided score called GrabColor.sib which you can print in color by accessing the Sibelius panel of the print menu and choosing View menu options (after making sure they re set as you would like highlights should be ticked) and Print in color. To print in black and white, simply make sure those choices are unticked. Here are examples of some of the textural devices Grabowsky explores: Homophony Homophony is usually considered as having two main incarnations. In the first, sometimes described as homophonic homorhythm, all the parts are rhythmically identical. We can hear this texture in the first two bars of the score and only the first two bars of the piece. One of the important repeating textures in this work is a variation on homophonic homorhythm that could be called homophonic highlighting. Rather than having homophonic homorhythmic parts, the supporting parts play only on certain notes of the melodic line, providing a sketchier version, like a children s dot-todot puzzle. This texture gives a sound that constantly moves from thick to thin to thick to thin, as in bars 29 30. Here we have one instrument playing the melodic line and up to fourteen instrumental voices doing the homophonic highlighting or dot-to-dot harmony. Nice texture! But with Grabowsky, as you might guess from, say, the intricacies of his metric approach, it s not that simple. In bars 31 32 (see next page), he switches it up, both by changing the timbre, and by having: The first two bars of the piece One instrument playing the melodic line Three instruments playing homophonic homorhythmic harmony One instrument playing homophonic highlighting Bars 29 and 30

[Texture] The other type of homophony with one melodic line and a rhythmically separate harmony, often in longer chords also figures briefly in the piece, in bar 119. This bar provides a sharp contrast after all the textural experimentation and complex interlocking parts that have characterized most of the piece. Ostinato Another textural device one that Grabowsky uses a great deal is ostinato, a (more or less) steady background against which all of the changes in the piece take place. This can be seen clearly in the marimba part with the repeat of this figure, which makes its first appearance in bar 3: - and, most particularly, the shaker part, which is played (sometimes, you will not be surprised to learn, with a bit of variation) through a good portion of the piece, after entering in bar 5: Pedal Tone / Drone Bars 31 to 32 Bar 119 Marimba ostinato The shaker part A textural device that falls somewhere between a pedal tone and a drone manifests for the first time in bars 9 12 in the vibes: Bars 9-12, vibes part Variations appear, for example, at 33 36 in the horns and vibes with some support from the flute; 57 64 in the slow strings and vibes, with a genuine 8-bar drone on D in the slow strings.

[Texture] Wider Listening There is an instructional section in the Sibelius Worksheet Creator that explores texture. You can find it here: 01 Elements of Music > 08 Score Analysis > 03 Textures & Textural Devices Programme music is another interesting area in which to explore texture. Just as the other elements of music change to reflect the different parts of the story, so, too, do the textures. To examine the use of texture in a large-scale work and focusing on a sophisticated texture, you could listen to the thwarted attempts to build a fugue in the scherzo movement of Beethoven s Ninth Symphony, followed by the final movement in which a double fugue plays a key role. Composition task Students will open the file GrabTexture.sib and write a piece for piano (any other instrumentation in addition is allowed) using at least three textures from those discussed above and the list below. Arpeggios Broken chords Canon Reference to each performance technique is found in the Ideas Hub to help the students remember what they have learned in class. The piece should be a theme and variations in which the melodic (or main) material is explored by being arranged in different ways, with different textural devices.

10. Music Concepts and Composition Tasks: Structure In Search of a Comedy is a challenge to analyse structurally: it is more like a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle than a piece that can readily be described with A s, B s, and C s. Sophisticated students will be able to start with a full score and use standard signposts such as: the main melodic material meter changes the soloist s part to analyse the structure. The score GrabShortNoColor.sib has the empty staves hidden, making the score easier to work with (not to mention, saving trees). If this is well within their capabilities, you could challenge them to do the analysis entirely by ear (no score viewing), but allowing them to listen to the piece (and portions of the piece) using the mp3 as many times as they like. Students who are not ready to take on the task from square one can try one of these approaches: Start with the score called GrabShortColor.sib, which has some textural devices coloured, giving students a start for their analysis. For students who you want to help make the leap from analysing simple compositions with limited parts in their structure, you may wish to use the score called GrabShortStructure.sib. This score has an added stave called structure, with all other staves hidden using Focus on Staves. On the structure stave has been placed the material that is most likely to help students understand the structure of the piece, but with no verbal labels or analysis done. This technique has also reduced the score to 2 pages, making it much easier for the less-experienced student to grasp. The coloured highlights from GrabShort- Color.sib have been retained, and these give a visual indication of repetition, but they can be deleted if you like. Composition Tasks There are two tasks, depending on the level of the student attempting them. The first task involves using three captured Ideas to put a piece together. The Ideas are taken from an actual piece of music, a Contredanse for piano by Joseph Haydn, which can be found in the Sibelius Worksheet Creator at this location: 03 Selected Repertoire > 02 Other Piano Repertoire > 09 Haydn > Contredanse. Students should not be introduced to the piece prior to doing the task. They are asked to write a brief paragraph describing the structure. When students have completed their work, you may wish to give them the opportunity to hear Contredanse in its origi-

Sibelius [Structure] nal form (the score is included in this set), and compare their work with Haydn s. The second task asks students to create a piece with a complex structure and invites them to use the Ideas feature to hold chunks to make it easier for them to manipulate them in the score. Before students begin this task, you may wish to review with them the various features of the Ideas Hub. Information can be found at 5.8 Ideas in the Sibelius Reference or earlier in this booklet.